1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of decorative jewelry items, and more particularly to a jewelry rope chain exhibiting unusual visual properties.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Jewelry rope chain has been made for many years. Although rope chains can be made by machine, the better quality rope chains are usually manufactured by hand. While a rope chain has the feel and look of a rope, it is actually made up of a series of individual C-shaped flat links made from a precious metal such as silver or gold. Gold is available in at least four colors; white, yellow, rose (pink), and green. The C-shaped links are gapped and fastened together in a particular way, such that tightly interlinking annular links give the appearance of intertwining helical rope strands. The links of hand-made rope chains are made with a tighter fit and are more visually appealing than are machine-made rope chains. A number of annular links are connected and intertwined together in a systematic and repetitive pattern of orientation, resulting in an eye-pleasing, flexible, and delicate-appearing chain that looks and feels like a finely braided helix.
In a conventional rope chain, the orientation pattern of individual links producing the rope chain is repeated every several links, for example every four links, and as such is referred to as a four-link rope chain. In an improvement to the conventional basic rope chain, it is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,517 that the links can be constructed in different and narrower dimensions so that the pattern is repeated every six links or even every eight links. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,498, to Chia et al., it is suggested that, by narrowing the cross-section of the link, the six-link rope chain's connected segments appear finer than those of the four-link version and consequently provides a more delicate and refined presentation than that obtainable with a four-link rope chain arrangement. While the '517 patent uses a six-link rope chain as a preferred embodiment, that patent teaches the formulas for creating rope chains consisting of a repeated series of six, eight, or more links.
Some manufacturers of jewelry use different colored gold and silver elements to enhance the beauty of the jewelry article. Examples are: rope chains in which sets of links of one color alternate with sets of links of another color; and bracelets or necklaces constructed of interconnected twisted loops exhibiting alternating colors along their lengths.
However, in all of the prior art construction techniques for producing rope chain jewelry, each link is of a single solid color, texture, and pattern, e.g., each link may be stamped from a solid thin sheet of precious metal, such as gold. Thus, for example, while an all yellow gold rope chain or an all white gold rope chain is attractive, it is otherwise uninteresting due to the monotonic nature of its unvarying coloration and/or texture along the links of the chain. Those prior art rope chains that do exhibit variations of colors along their lengths nevertheless are constructed of individual links each of which is of a single solid color, texture, and/or pattern. Other jewelry articles exhibit variations of colors along their lengths using interconnected twisted chain loops, but they are not regarded as rope chains as defined herein.